This year's Dave's Picks series comes to a close just as the band's getting back together again in '76. By the time the Grateful Dead hit New Jersey’s Capitol Theatre - for the very first time - on 6/17/76, they were buzzing from their reunion, armed with new and revived material, the Rhythm Devils reformed with the mischievous Mickey Hart once again behind the kit. They'd skived off the unwieldy Wall of Sound and scaled back the venues from cavernous arenas to intimate theatres. Quite the treat!

On Sept. 23, to the delight of Bay Area live music lovers, Sweetwater Music Hall hosted the inaugural Sweetwater in the Sun festival in Marin County, California. Concertgoers nationwide are familiar with the legendary Sweetwater, an intimate venue that has hosted great acts over the decades ranging from Elvis Costello to New Riders of the Purple Sage. While the storied venue has a legacy for its high-profile acts in cozy confines, nothing could have prepared fans for the announcement of Sweetwater in the Sun.

It was splendor on the mountain on September 8, when local musician Bob Weir offered a set of his own and appeared for onstage musical cameos with Grace Potter as well as headliner Herbie Hancock at the fourth annual Sound Summit, atop Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The eight-hour affair at the 4,000-capacity Mountain Theatre included an unusually diverse set of acts, from an acoustic duo to contemporary R&B, alt-country, Grateful Dead music, rock, and open-ended jazz.

Marin's favorite son (and biggest rock star) Bob Weir and the North Bay's iconic venue launching a whole new offering.  They're calling it Sweetwater in the Sun and it's going down Sun Sept 23 at Stafford Lake Park in Novato. This is a family friendly event, and in addition to our main stage (lineup below) we have a kids stage with 2 kids bands, face painting, magic, bubbles, arts & crafts and more.  Our legendary chef Gordon Drysdale is also doing all the food, raising the bar on what folks can expect from "festival food."

One of the largest audiences to ever attend Lockn’ poured into the festival grounds on Saturday, August 25th for a historic day of multi-generational jam band music. By mid-afternoon when the North Carolina band BIG Something took the main stage, five bands had already played, and a huge crowd filled the field and surrounding hills. The six-piece modern jam band fuses elements of jazz, funk, rock, and electronica into hypnotic dance trance music.